Week 8, Response

I enjoyed the couplet form of Trethewey’s poem, “Theories of Time and Space.” The physical space between each couplet allowed a bit of breathing room for the reader, or a slight subconscious pause or slowed pacing that allows the somber reflection necessary to commemorate history and homelands. There are two hard stops at the end of the couplets—one at the end of the first stanza, and one to conclude the poem. These moments present the only hard reflections or slammed effects of stopping—when the poet first identifies her argument (“there’s no going home”), and then later supports or depicts her argument with the other stanzas. These two hard stops frame the poem as metaphorically as the photograph “waiting” for a reader’s “return” to the poem and the nostalgia. The two hardstops are further reinforced when juxtaposed by the other eighteen lines that intentionally spill content to the next line or stanza with mid-phrase enjambments or softer punctuation. These softer lines allow for a motion of the poem that rapidly reflects the motion of the piece (i.e. “mile markers ticking”).